JUNE = Jeans. Union. Necessary. Extreme.

EXTREME... The kids came for a week and seven of us in a one bedroom apartment made their well-oiled family machine really obvious. Not a speck of drama, not one fight over the bathroom — just FUN. Witty Alixis, sent to get Kaysie out of the shower, pounded on the door hollering, "EVACUATE, EVACUATE!"

I've had it with extreme roller coaster rides. Vertigo is aptly named.

Sponge Bob is even too wild for my blood – next time I'll sit in seats that don’t move. You can see Amanda is just one of the kids – these theme park excursions are always her idea!

NECESSARY...Art is vital to my well being. The next weekend it was back to Locke to pick up a painting I bought from Chris Spencer titled “Laura’s Garden” – my name, my mother’s name, and the type of garden I’ve always dreamed of having. Sad time. The Down by the River Gallery has closed. Yet Spence is still painting, and the town remains quaint as ever: LockeNess - Things Ordinary & Odd. 

I miss the classes with the kids, but now I have one of Spence’s paintings hanging on my living room wall to take me back there every time I look at it. It’s also a focus board – my Laura garden – someday soon.

The portrait is of the "Artist NOT Starving"gripping my money tightly in his fist, at lunch in the back of Al the Wop’s.

UNION... Last weekend in June, Joyce (my partner in Gossamer Rings), Kay and I spent a day touring the Mountain Home Ranch retreat center in Calistoga where we are hosting the Steven Forrest Apprenticeship teaching retreat in September. What a calming, relaxing, union with nature location. Now I want a weekend away all by myself – to go on a camera walk, to paint a little, to sit in a rocking chair on that deck for a day, to be one with nature, with spirit, communion with mySelf. The view from the upper deck of the lodge overlooks a cabin and the conference building.

JEANS...We came to work, at the end of the month, to find giant ads all over our buildings in the Levi Plaza. People stopped walking to read the beginning of the Levi ad launch, a message that had not yet been completed - top layer will read: “I Am the New American Pioneer.”This was just a taste of even more exciting surprises to come... See next post: JULY.

It’s been awhile since I’ve been blogging and my friends are nagging me. I've been extremely busy, and high with life for many months. I hit a downward spiral this past week. What goes up seems to invariably come down – in this case, my energy. Rest helps, and this morning as I happily started in again, looking over the photos I’d taken, thinking about all the fun I’d had, all the places I'd been, I found this quote pinging me as the emails arrived: 

"Only one thing has to change for us to know happiness in our lives: where we focus our attention."—Greg Anderson

Comments

[orianna fielding banks]

Dearest Lee
I came across your site by chance...loved the writing and the message ...then saw your name.....and it all made sense and was immediately cast under your magical spell....
I love your writing ...your thoughts and your spirit....
You can imagine my surprise when I scrolled down and saw your lovely words about me and Sash....thank you so much....
Will keep following your news....

Orianna. x